JI extremist handed over to Singapore

Indonesian police have confirmed they have arrested and handed over to Singapore one of the region's most wanted Islamist extremists.

The man was wanted in Singapore for planning bomb and aircraft attacks on Changi airport.

Mas Slamet Kastari, the one-time head of the radical Jemaah Islamiah (JI) organisation in Singapore, had been arrested twice before in Indonesia for immigration offences, briefly jailed and released.

This time Indonesian National Police picked him up in East Java based on intelligence that he was using the alias Edy Heriyanto, and immediately moved to hand him to Singaporean authorities, even though no formal extradition treaty exists.

Meanwhile, an Indonesian jailed for assisting the men behind the first Bali bombings has died in hospital.

An Indonesian Jemaah Islamiah member named Hernianto, sentenced to 15 years in jail for his role in organising the October 2002 Bali bombing, has died of kidney failure in custody.